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Petition update

About the petition

Dylan D.

Fort Worth, TX, United States

May 17, 2019 —

As this petition approaches (EDIT: surpasses!) a million signatures, I figured I should give a real update and explanation.

I made this petition some few days after Episode 4, “The Last of the Starks”, aired. I was just so disappointed and angry. It was simply me venting a bit. I posted it to r/freefolk on Reddit, it got nowhere, and I shrugged and went about my day. I had forgotten all about it. A week later, a coworker caught me before I was leaving for the day and asked, “Hey, is this you?” The petition had almost reached 500,000 signatures. I was blown away. I hadn’t checked the thing for a week! And look at how far it has come!

I haven’t heard from anyone HBO-related. I don’t think people can reasonably expect HBO to completely remake the season, or any part of this particular series (keep in mind the prequel spinoffs). It costs a fortune to shoot one episode, and I think most signers understand that. Will HBO lose gobs of money over this? Eh probably not. As Heath Ledger’s Joker once said, “It’s not about the money, it’s about sending a message.” And I think this message is one of frustration and disappointment at its core.

There is so much awful crap going on in the world, people like me need to escape into things like Star Wars and Game of Thrones. We fans invested a wealth of passion and time into this series. I’ve been watching religiously since Season 2, myself. I’ve read all the books and eagerly await the next two. I love this story, and I, like most of you, was crushed to see how the last season (and Season 7, let’s be real) has been handled.

Is Dany going to succumb to madness in the books? Probably. Is Arya going to kill the Night King? Well he doesn’t exist in the books as of yet so…maybe? Is Jaime going to sacrifice his entire character arc to go embrace Cersei? I’d doubt it, but that’s GRRM’s decision. The issue I have is not necessarily with what we got, it’s HOW we got there -- A rushed, laughably inconsistent mess of a season fraught with cringe-inducing, arc-slaying dialogue and “everybody is stupid” syndrome. We can expect that the books will describe a more sensical path toward the ultimate conclusions that we will see on Sunday. No pressure, Mr. Martin.

D&D adapted those books in the beginning and it became one of the greatest TV shows of all time. No one can doubt their talents there. But they seemingly became tired of the series and rushed to the end, thereby doing the show and its fans a great disservice.

I feel for the actors and actresses too. I am sure some of them are happy with their arcs or perhaps are just happy to be done with the series so they can move on, but I am also sure that many are disappointed with the writing of their characters and the plot here in the end. They put their souls into these characters, and they could be every bit as disappointed as we are.

And no one can question the talents of the casting department, and cinematography, and music, and costuming, and the CGI team, and all those technical fields that went into keeping the show such a beautiful spectacle through to the end. They deserve all the accolades they can get and this petition is not a comment on their contributions to the show.

In closing, I didn’t make this petition to be an entitled, whiny fan. I made it because I was immensely disappointed and needed to vent. Do I have a solution? I’ve got plenty of ideas, but no, I’m not a Hollywood writer. But you don’t need to be a mechanic to know your car is broken.

Thank you to everyone for signing this silly thing. I will post another update if something tangible happens.

Valar Morghulis

-Dylan

Post-1 million update: No word yet, folks. I want to keep this update as the main link you see on the petition since it clarifies the main post much better than any follow-up. I promise that if HBO contacts me, with any words at all, I will share here as a whole new update when I can. I have not been paid off (or paid anything), as some people have suggested, and I do not receive any money from the donations made here. Thank you again for the support and kind words! Ours is the Fury!

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